Night had began to fall on Tongpai Town, the moon bright in the sky as the residents continued to leave on the route that had been traversed by hundreds of others before them during the day. Some houses had internal structures partially dismantled, so their wood could be used as kindling for the fire attack that was planned. Even though the day before had been laborious and exhausting for the Warriors of Riverside, they continued to work on their different tasks throughout the day, their leaders having worked hard alongside them.
Dom and his leadership were gathered by the Docks, a small table had been brought out from the office of the small dock and they were all sat around it, on a variety of chairs. Dom gazed over the calm lake beside Tongpai Town as the waters moved gently against the shore. Attached to the dock was the Galatea and one of the other Bireme's with a handful of merchant ships that had been tied together. The rest had left earlier before it was dark, lead by another Bireme. The other ships all had a wooden arrow defence shield placed on their side, to protect them from any possible enemies in the trees and would hopefully arrive back in Riverside safely, before returning again the following day.
Gan Ning was sat beside Crassus and Tomyris, discussing some potential opportunities with the newly gained merchant ships, their conversation loud and heartful after a long couple of days. Subutai, Xun You and Abubakar were discussing the situation within Tongpai Town and the current evacuation efforts, their conversation slightly less heartful, but still positive. Tomoe was sat silently beside Dom as she also looked over the waters edge, Dom wondered what was going through her mind as she closed her eyes and sat peacefully. The others, Lu Fang, Hua Rong, Gu Kaizhi and the recovering Da Qiao were sat listening to the different conversations that were taking place.
Da Qiao had agreed to join Riverside earlier as a Villager, and would live in Gan Ning's Villa once it was built whilst she recovered fully. Dom was excited at her addition and had checked her stats.
[Da Qiao
Villager Grade - S
Da Qiao, the older of the Qiao sisters, was a renowned beauty from the late Han period of China. The sisters were known as the Two Qiaos of Jiangdong, their father being a renowned stateman at the time. She was married to the Warlord Sun Ce, the older brother of Sun Quan who later became the Emperor of Wu in the Three Kingdoms Period. Her younger sister married Zhou Yu, Sun Ce's best friend and one of the brightest strategic minds during these warring times.
The famous battle of Red Cliffs, also known as the Battle of Chibi, took place between the Warlord Cao Cao and the Warlord Sun Quan. It is believed that Cao Cao had taken a fancy to the two sisters and in a poem written by his son, had declared he would take the women so they could each live in one of the two towers of his new palace. Zhou Yu and Sun Quan were outraged and went to war with Cao Cao, changing the landscape of China during that period.
This Da Qiao has some experience in management, having wanted to create a peaceful place in World Conquest Online in memory of her husband. However after her recent exposure, has decided to leave leadership to others. Can be upgraded back to a low grade Hero if certain conditions are fulfilled]
Dom's next level of leadership, his Centurion's, were all currently completing tasks or getting some rest before their shifts to continue with the implementation of their different tasks and plans. They had been treated earlier to wine and cheese by their commanders and had distributed it amongst those that had achieved the most from their units throughout the day.
He looked around the group and smiled, before deciding it was time to get the meeting completed so they could head back to their rooms and rest.
"Let's begin." Dom announced, as everyone went silent and turned to look at him, all with different expressions on their faces as they knew it would be an important conversation. "As you all know, I will have to go again tonight, and I may not be back for almost two days. As you are aware, our current intelligence shows that we should have just a bit more than that time to commence the plan, so I hope to be back in time."
"If you are not, we need to make sure that when you return, it is somewhere safe." Subutai interrupted, "I believe it may be worth you resting on one of the new Merchant Ships that we can place safely to the East of the lake. Gan Ning has been learning more about it's area."
Dom looked to Gan Ning, who nodded with a smile before speaking.
"Tongpai Lake is huge, I am unsure on the total size, but from discussions with the Tongpai Merchants, it could take over half a day to get from here to the other side. To the west is our entry on the Lake, as well as forests that encompass both sides of it. To the North I have been informed are two cities, one to the North West which is where the Merchant in custody has come from, and another to the North East. Between them is another river that heads to the north, but we have no further information about that. On the Eastern side is a large mountain range, that spreads from the shores of the lake to the sea, which Crassus has confirmed he saw on his journey." Gan Ning explained.
"Not a problem for today, but it will be worth exploring around the lake on the eastern side, as we could use that as a natural boundary." Crassus commented.
"That is a lot of territory you are trying to claim there." Subutai replied quickly, "We wouldn't have the resource to control it."
"It's easier to claim it now, than have to conquer it in the future." Crassus countered.
"Let's leave that for now." Dom interrupted, agreeing with both points of view. "We can come back to that later, for now let's see where we are at with the preparation for Tongpai Town."
"We can have everyone who is not assisting evacuated and moved to either the Military Camp or Riverside by tomorrow evening." Xun You stated, "We have ordered the carts being used to be sent back from the Military Camp once they have unloaded, so we should have chance to do another load if not two."
"What is left that we could send?" Dom asked.
"Mainly materials and some food." Crassus explained, "We have enough food put aside for our units, aside from that their is probably another hundred carts worth at least. We also have a large amount of Copper, Tin and Bronze from the mines and workshops that haven't been sent yet. These are materials that are important for a lot of the goods we want to develop in Riverside, so it would be ideal to get them dispatched."
"There are also Military Materials from the Military Camp." Tomyris added, "Spare weapons, Tents and other items that will be useful."
"The quality of the weapons isn't as good as those we already have in Riverside." Subutai confirmed, "But they are still useful for Villagers and spares. We could use a lot of these to train a militia."
"Or the Women." Tomoe replied, "The Women were the last point of defence in our Villages, trained to fight and defend our homes. The Militia should also include the Women."
"I have no problem with that." Subutai agreed, "So we need to make sure they also get on one of the other carts back, was there much Tomyris?."
"There are plenty." She replied, "But I think we can get our blacksmiths to create something better aimed at our people eventually. We should speak with Pullo about his training regime and how we can adapt it to non military members of Riverside."
"I'll make sure to prioritise the things that need prioritising." Crassus stated as he could see that Dom wanted to moved the conversation on.
"How about the set up of the Trap?" Dom asked, looking towards Gu Kaizhi.
"The Town Centre should be loud enough now to reverberate and attract the attention of the enemies." Gu Kaizhi replied proudly, "I am confident this will work."
"There is a lot of hope that they don't have the intelligence of us and that their hunting instinct takes over." Subutai added.
"We have partially dismantled buildings nearer to the east where the enemies shouldn't be approaching from, to use their materials to help with the fire." Xun You said, stepping in to take over from Gu Kaizhi, "We also have legionaries in the woods chopping down additional firewood, however they have been instructed that this can only continue throughout tomorrow until mid afternoon, after that we need to make Tongpai Town look as it normally would."
"How are the traps going?" Dom asked as Xun You finished the first part of his update.
"Tongpai Town will be a fiery tomb once we have finished." Xun You replied, "Their is a large incendiary pit being dug all around the inner wall and hidden, whilst we also are doing the same in semi circles outside of the gates that they will enter through."
"We have also planned the unit composition. The Heavy Infantry forces will wait near where we attacked from, once the enemy are inside they will spread out and create an encirclement to stop any from retreating. A small group of Archers from the Forbidden Guards and Banas's Horse Archers will be with Gu Kaizhi and will send signal arrows to update us of the progress." Subutai added, "We also are digging hiding places for the fire starters on the outside of the wall, where they will hide until signalled. They will then come out of their hiding places, climb the wall and drop bottles of distilled alcohol that will be lit on fire with their fire making kits."
"How about escape plans?" Dom asked, wanting to make sure that every section of the plan had been finalised.
"The tunnel has been widened and will be continued to be widened in the coming days." Xun You stated, "We are building dismantling traps in to them as well so the forces can retreat and close the tunnels off. Gan Ning will have a boat ready to pick anyone up that needs it, but we expect them to escape out of Tongpai Town though other routes we are mapping."
"My unit will be on our ships, once the trap is initiated, we will spread out and kill any that try to escape from the docks. Our ships have shields installed and" Gan Ning concluded, "With the Horse Archers, Forbidden Guard and the Balearic Slingers, we have enough ranged units to destroy them from a distance. Any that escape on land will meet the Legionaries and the Hoplite."
"Who will be with Gu Kaizhi?" Dom asked, wondering who had volunteered for it.
"I will." Hua Rong said proudly, "I am the best Archer here and will be in charge of the Warriors at the Town Centre. I will make sure we all get out safely."
Dom agreed with Hua Rong's involvement, the limited expose he had to his Archer Hero had allowed Dom to see just how impressive his Archery skills were. He had already decided that when there was some down time after the Tongpai Town exposition, he would ask Hua Rong to help him improve his own skills.
"Gan Ning is managing the Navy, whilst the Ranged units on the land will be managed by Xun You and myself." Subutai explained. "Tomoe and Tomyris are going to manage the Infantry at the East and South, whilst Lu Fang and Abubakar will control small units that of Spartans and Forbidden Guards that can quickly react to any gaps that appear."
"I agree with this plan, lets get this done. We have at least two days, but I expect not much more than that." Dom explained, "We need to make sure everything is ready by then. I hope to be here, if I am I will either join Gan Ning if I am late, or the Infantry if I am on time."
"For Riverside!" Subutai declared, lifting up his cup of wine in toast to the leadership of Riverside that was sat with them.
"For Riverside!" The rest repeated, raising their cups in salute.
The preparations for the end of the Tongpai Town excursion had been completed and the group had a few more drinks before they separated back to the locations they had decided to sleep in. Dom was escorted to a glamourous merchant ship, that had originally belonged to the envoy, and made him self comfortable. A small honour guard were placed on the ship to protect him, whilst is slowly made it's way towards the mountain to the east of the Lake.